LAFAYETTE — Caught between a rock and a hard place, Lafayette officials are trying to figure out how to allow a couple to build their dream home without prompting lawsuits from the owners or the neighbors who oppose the sprawling structure.
The City Council will consider draft approvals at its April 13 meeting that could potentially pave the way for Lafayette residents Steve and Linda Wight to build the nearly 10,000 square foot single-family home on 13 hilly acres off Monticello Road.
Council members will also consider the project’s contested environmental review, conditions of approval and a list of measures addressing impacts of building the two-story 9,638-square foot home. Plans also call for a three-car garage, garden and exercise rooms, an outdoor kitchen and a pool.
But first the council is scheduled to meet in closed session to discuss a lawsuit threatened by the homeowners if their application is denied. Litigation is also being threatened by a homeowners association if the project is approved.
“There is a reasonable basis to conclude that if we approve the project, there will be litigation. I think it will be useful to have the entire council consider that,” said Councilman Don Tatzin.
Tatzin called for the special session so the full council could consider the issues. Vice Mayor Traci Reilly and Councilman Mark Mitchell were absent at the March 23 meeting when the council discussed how to proceed and directed staff to return with a resolution approving the project.
It will be considered alongside another resolution denying it. “I think it’s premature,” Tatzin said at the time, explaining the council should focus on conditions of approval and a proposed construction management plan first, but he was outvoted. The Wights’ building plans have gone through a number of revisions while making their way through Lafayette’s planning and approval channels for more than seven years.
And now the council’s actions could breathe new life into a project that seemed doomed in October, when the council was poised to deny it.
Instead, the council yanked the resolution of denial from the agenda after a letter from attorney David Bowie. Bowie, who is representing the Wights, challenged the city’s concerns about grading, construction traffic and potential hazards related to the project. In December, the council unanimously agreed to reconsider the plans. The reversal has not gone over well with opponents, who argue the home is too large and out of character with the quiet neighborhood, which sits below the steep hill near where the structure is proposed. Neighbors also question how construction traffic will access the site via a narrow one-lane road and worry about the stability of the hill, among other concerns.
Edward Shaffer, an attorney representing the Glen Neighborhood Association, called for a full environmental review of the project rather than the current study.
The city prepared a “mitigated negative declaration” last year that found no major environmental impacts resulting from the home’s construction after revisions made to the project.
Shaffer said neighbors want more details about issues, including where construction materials would be stored, where workers will park and where trucks will queue on nearby Deer Hill Road.
He also warned the council that approving the home could set a precedent.
“We think it’s a very serious concern about weakening the city’s interpretation of its hillside regulations and how that would be seen by the many other owners in the city when they come forward and ask for equal protection, equal benefits, equal rights to build very large houses with large, flat areas,” Shaffer said.
